I would like to welcome new members Christine and Mark Rasmussen (they were at the Luau). They bought and fixed the red C&C 26’ boat that was leaking and are thinking of renaming it “On a Lark”.

This weekend was interesting. On Friday the rain stopped about 3 PM up at the lake. The stars were out and we could socialize on the dock. It rained during the night and on Saturday morning it was 100% humidity. It was misting with occasional rain. The racers gathered at 10:30 for the meeting and 6 boats headed out to race. It stayed like that till 3PM and then it was okay. I guess I should have heeded my own words, “If you listen to the weather, you will never leave home”. It was fine for the rest of the evening. A group of us went out to the new restaurant “Cuz Seafood”. Then there was more socializing on the dock on Saturday night. Sunday started out gray but no rain. By 3 PM the sun was out and getting warm. A group of us went out on Tenacious and several other boats made it out too. There was nice wind for an upwind sail to Kimble Point but by the time we turned around, the wind died. It was still fun to be with friends on the way back. Of course we ended the nice weekend with dinner at Zerdo’s.

This weekend is the Harvest Festival in Clarksville. It is similar to Lakefest in July. There is a street fair on Saturday. I wanted to know if there is any interest in a group sail up to Clarksville on Saturday for an overnight stay and sail home on Sunday. So far the weather is nice but cooler (Highs in the upper 60’s and Lows in the low 50’s at night). It is about a 4-5 hour sail depending on the wind. Just let me know. We can leave about 10 or 11AM on Saturday.

The weather for tomorrow is not looking good. Frying food can be dangerous when mixed with water. We will combine the Fish Fry with the Fall Meeting Pig Picking. I hope you have a good weekend. I will be up at the lake anyway. I do have a Yachting Trivia Pursuit game we can have a team challenge.

Just looking for a headcount on who will be at the fish fry. Please respond if you haven’t done so yet. Don’t forget to bring one of the following (salad, appetizer, side dish, or dessert). Thanks everyone.

Well the Commodore’s Challenge was cancelled on Saturday due to the weather. It gave people a chance to catch up on movies, take a nap and socialize on boats. We had 15 people join us for dinner at Zerdo’s. We have even started a new trend for people, as we usually eat there on our way home from the lake on Sunday. On Sunday, several more people ventured up to the lake. It was cloudy but warmer and we had 10-15 knot winds. There were 8 boats out enjoying a sail (Querida, Honeycraft, Stargazer, Expedition, Rock reation, M & M, Bill Opal and Jamie & Conrad). We had the crew of Parrotise onboard. We raised the sails at the goal posts and enjoyed tacking back and forth inching our way up towards the dam. We were exchanging tacks with Rock Reation. We hit up to 7.2 knots when all of the sudden we hear a pop and noticed the mainsail sag. Mark thought the halyard broke, then the sail headed down. Steve grabbed it so it did not go into the water. We pulled in the headsail and put the mainsail down the front hatch. The webbed loop broke at the top. Well after that, we just put out the headsail and had a leisurely sail up the lake. We made it to about Kimble Pt before turning around. Querida caught up to us and we were able to see that the bottom was nice and clean. Paul also washed his windows while sailing. We saw the Carolina Sailing Club finish their race. They had a terrible time of it on Saturday. With the rain and cold wind, there were 3 boats that went over. They called the races early on Saturday. Sunday was a much better day for them. Back at the dock we took the sail out and folded it up. We will have to fix the loop. Of course on our way home we stopped off at Zerdo’s and saw the Stargazer crew there.

Next week (Saturday September 24th) is the 3rd and 4th race of the Fall racing series. We will also have the Fish Fry at the Gazebo. So far the weekend weather is great. Please let us know if you will be able to make the Fish Fry. Our Master Chef Don Courtney will be firing up the grills. Everyone will need to bring either an appetizer, side dish or dessert for this event. LET US KNOW IF YOU WILL BE THERE. This is a club sponsored food event and we need to know how much fish to buy. Have a great week everyone and please reply by Friday.

Aloha!What a great weekend for a Luau. Except for wind, it was a perfect weekend. We had 62 people and 21 boats at the Luau, what an awesome turnout. Fun was had by adults, kids and dogs alike. On Friday we had help in the afternoon to get the stuff out of the shed and over to the campground in Henderson Point. Thanks to Eddie, Rich, Ted, John and Mark. Also thanks to Steve and Nathan for wood delivery. Our master chef Don and souse chefs (Rich, Paul, Steve) gathered about 11 AM at the marina. With all the cooking equipment and food, Don drove over to the campground and the rest of us started to sail over. Once we anchored, A dinghy brigade started to shore. Once on shore, there was lots to set up. We had to get the cooking area set up, the food area, set the seating area up, the volleyball area, (Mark and I set up the treasure hunt area on Friday), and the campfire area. We had music from Jimmy Buffet blaring on the CD player. By 1 PM, we were starting to preparing the food. We had corn huskers, potato slicers, and chicken basters.

The crowd continued to gather, several members took their time to sail over in the light wind, others drove over and our motor boats zoomed over. Appetizers started to appear on the food table. People were playing corn hole and swimming and meeting and greeting.

The food was ready by 4 PM and everyone chowed down. Besides the club food, there were bean salads, rice dishes, pasta salads, baked beans, deviled eggs, olive medley, and potato salad. For dessert we had cookies, cupcakes, pineapple upside down cake, key lime pie, and other things. At the point, there was a gorgeous panoramic view of all the boats at anchor. Amazing.

At 5 PM we started the treasure hunt for kids down on the beach. We had 8 kids searching on the beach for treasure. All of them found a prize. (I especially liked seeing how the others helped the last person to find the last treasure, you should all be proud of yourselves). After the kids, we had a tougher hunt for the adults. We buried 3 “You Win” cards and 10 “Try Again” in an area on the beach and we had a crowd searching for the buried treasure of a $25 gift certificate for West Marine. The competition was fierce. Rhonda found a “You Win” . Tim found the most “Try Again” cards. But no one could find another “You Win”. We even had a search and rescue line form and drag feet to the other end to no avail. Well we will hold onto the prize and put to toward the Commodore’s Challenge this coming weekend.

After the treasure hunt a group of us went swimming to cool down. After a short swim, we got out to get a game of volleyball started. We had Team Eddie and Team Steve play. We had some players make some incredible plays (I hope they weren’t too sore the next day). We had teams of 6 or 7 and played 3 games. All won by Team Eddie. But good sportsmanship prevailed and everyone shook hands afterwards. Some people went for another swim and others hit the food table. By 7:30 our fire crew started the campfire. Everyone moved their chairs to be closer to the fire. Some people roasted marshmellows and others made smores. As darkness fell, the almost full moon was so bright in the cloudless sky that you did not need flashlights. There was a sheen on the water that was beautiful. Several people moved the Corn Hole game into the moonlight and played. As it got to 8 PM, we went around the circle and ask each of us where and what we were doing on 9/11/2001. The fire was tended by Anthony and Jonathan. They were feeding the fire with paper. By 10 PM, the crowd started to dissipate. By 11 PM, the last of our group headed to bed. We had cleaned up most of the camp ground and put away any food. We had leftover chicken, shrimp and hot dogs, chips and dip, and a few other things. We were going to come back in the morning for a brunch. It was a great night for sleeping out. The temperatures cooled down. In the morning the sun was out bright and clear. Several of us dinghied over to shore. After getting more things put away and loaded onto Steve’s truck, we started to pull out the food. We reheated the chicken, cooked up some hot dogs and pulled out the shrimp. I don’t know what happened to the left over corn and potatoes. They seemed to have disappeared. We had a great brunch of the leftovers. We also had a few games of Corn Hole while we waited for Eddie to come over with the van to load the rest of the things into it. The conversation that I heard was everyone loved this location and want to do it here next year. I agree! How about you?

The rest of Sunday seemed to be a day of bad motors. After everything was loaded we departed the campground and headed back to the boats. We turned for find Nathan paddling his dinghy back to his boat. Later we heard a call for a jump starter for his sailboat (kids watched too many movies).

Then we got back to the dock, Mark helped John from Renatus. He was having some electrical problems. We jumped onto our jet-ski and went for a ride instead of taking the boat back out. We stopped at all of our club boats as they were either coming back to the marina or out for a swim/sail. We tied up at Moon Fish for a swim. A short time later, we heard a hail on the radio that a boat was on fire near the goal post. We jumped onto the jet ski to see if we could help. When we got there, several boats were hovering around, but the boat was in shallow water and people had to be careful. We saw Tim on Sandy Cheeks and found out that boat that was smoking was a runabout that Jennifer from Renatus was on. She knew something was wrong and opened the engine compartment and opened a fire extinguisher into the engine then got off the boat and was picked up by Sandy Cheeks. We approached the boat and it was still steaming. Mark emptied another fire extinguisher onto the engine and turn the key off. Wildlife was hailed and they towed the runabout back to the marina. We headed over to Renatus because they were going to get towed in by the runabout but needed a lift now. Mark on the Pilot boat towed Renatus back and we went to tell Tim on Sandy Cheeks what was happening. In all the going ons, Sandy Cheeks grounded and needed to be towed off. So we pulled them off with the jet-ski and then Tim’s motor restarted. He was able to get back under his own power. The moral of the story is make sure you have a VHF radio and call on 71 for club help. Keep calm, cool and collected (hat’s off to Jennifer for using the fire extinguisher and then exiting the boat when the smoke didn’t stop). To other club member’s for staying close till the situation was evaluated. Everyone was safe and no injuries. Everyone will have a story to tell. For more pictures from this weekend go to the Steele Creek yacht Club facebook page. Thanks Laura for all the wonderful pix’s.

This weekend is the Commodore’s Challenge. We will have to take a look at the winds to determine the race. This year, we intend to really have a challenge on our new boat. On the schedule we also have the Fish Fry but since we had to postpone the Luau, I want to give Don our master chef a little break. Instead, we can do Zerdo’s for dinner on Saturday Night. Let me know by Thursday if you would like to join us for dinner on Saturday September 17th at Zerdo’s Family Restaurant in Oxford at 6 PM. We will have the Fish Fry on Saturday September 24th after the Fall Races. Thanks Again for everyone’s help in having a great Luau.